By Kelly Bray
Blake Schroeder quickly drank down his water and caught a minute in the shade before it was time to return to the makeshift field on the Hilldale High School parking lot between the softball and baseball fields.
Schroeder, 8, was one of 111 boys that participated in the two-day, Day of Champions Football camp put on by the Hilldale Youth Football League for grades 1 through 6.
The camp which started Friday and ended Saturday featured former Oklahoma quarterback Josh Heupel along with other former Sooners Brandon Shelby, Wayne Chambers and Ramon Richardson. Ken Heupel, the father of Josh, directed the camp.
Also on the camp’s staff were Texas Tech Scott Peterson and assistant coaches Jerry Dominguez (Arizona Western), Matt Rice (Wisconsin-Eue Claire), Chuck Heopla (East Central), Brian Miller (Washburn, Kan.) and Earl Mosey (formerly at Notre Dame).
“What we’re doing is teaching them football basics,” Ken Heupel said. “But that’s just part of it. We’re also teaching them trust, respect and hard work. We’re hoping to build a football base for them now and in the future.”
The younger Heupel, now quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma, enjoyed working with the kids.
“Hopefully we’ve had an impact on these kids that will last a lifetime,” he said. “We’re all just happy to be here and come out and share some life skills and fundamentals with them.”
Heupel, the Heisman Trophy runner-up when he guided the Sooners to the 2000 national championship, still holds the single game passing yardage record (429 against Louisville in 1999) and the single-season record with 3,850 yards in 1999. He was the career yardage leader at OU until Jason White passed him in 2004.
Said Heupel about coaching: “I feel a lot better on Sunday morning now than I did when I was playing. But it’s still the same type of excitement each Saturday.”
Hilldale Youth Football Commissioner Ben Laybas was pleased with what he saw both days.
“Most of these out here are Hilldale kids,” he said. “I think we had 95 and the rest are from Coweta, Fort Gibson and Wagoner. “They’re all going to come away from this camp better players.”
Hildalle plays in the Indian Nations Football Conference that includes teams from Broken Arrow, Bartlesville, Bixby, Catoosa, Claremore, Coweta, Glenpool, Haskell, Inola, Jenks, Locust Grove, Sapulpa, Sand Springs, Skiatook, Stillwater, Pryor, Owasso, Tulsa Union and Wagoner. The Hilldale fifth-grade team won its division in 2006 but lost in the playoffs.
“This will be our third year in the conference,” Laybas said. “Our kids see some pretty good competition each week when you consider the Jenkses and the Unions and the Broken Arrows.”
The campers began each day at 8 a.m. and ended at 3:30 p.m. both days. On Friday, though, half of the session had to be moved into the Hilldale gym because of morning rains.
On Saturday, though, there was no rain, just clouds overhead that gave the occasional shade.
“This camp was a good idea,” said Tony Wyeabower, father of one of the campers, David, a sixth- grader at Hilldale. “This is the same style of camp that they run down in Norman and it’s just great that we get a chance to have one here in Muskogee.”
Schroder summed it up best.
“I liked (hitting) those dummies,” Schroeder said. “That’s it.”
